I suspect that most of the Imperial cybernetics, including Makara's arm, were probably "upgrades" rather than replacements for damaged parts or control mechanisms - much like the Borg in Star Trek. Only the symbiote-things were mind control devices, as shown by Carter having full control over his artificial arm when his symbiote was killed.As for Harlock... not bad, but he's clearly in desperate need of a decent hairstylist.

Captain Harlock? That looks fully mint, man. And whoever it was was right: Lamia is a lightweight, do-goody, cardboard character with no personality, depth or history whatsoever.(Just my personal opinion)

That's funny, I would have said Lamia had more history than the other characters: she is the one whose infancy we know the most about, we see flashbacks to when she was a baby, found by Prof Hagen, and even earlier, when the wizard foretold she would be someone special.I think Lamia should wear the blue dress (seen in the harp-playing flashbacks) more often, it's lovely!

Actually, I think in many ways Lamia is one of the more three dimensional characters. Although there are times when she's very vulnerable, it's often because of her strong ethical views. But she gets her share of the action too - driving out to X-Bomber when it crashes on the Moon for the first time, trying to repel the Alliance boarders and so on. When you think about it, it's actually a nice twist at the end because once she's F-01 it's her who saves the lads, rather than the other way round which is how it's been up until that point, for the most part.